Sheet-holding device for printing presses



May 5, 1925. Y 1,536,351

L. E. MORRISON SHEET HOLDING DEVICE FOR PRINTING PRESSES Filed June a, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 5, 1925.

L. E. MORRISON E FOR PRINTING PRESSES SHEET HOLDING DEVI 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 5, 19,24

the frisket fingers have been raised away from the printed sheet, the delivery edge Patented May 5, 1925.

LEWIS E. MoRRIsonbr NEWARK, new, mns'nrnssrenon TO KLYMAX FEEDER.

rArE-n'r -orrice.

COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SHEET-HOLDING DEVICE F01?! PRINTING PRESSES.

Application ma June 5, 192.4 Serial No. 717,957.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Lewis E. MORRISON, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sheet-Holding of which the Devices for Printing Presses, following is a specification.

This invention relates to sheet holding devices for use on platen printing presses and printing machines.

The object of the invention is to provide a device or mechanism adapted to be at tached to the front edge of a'platen for the purpose of holding down or gripping the printed sheet and prevent curling orbuckling thereof and thereby facilitate and make certain that the sheet will be seized by the delivery gripper and delivered.

As is well known, in'a platen printing press, such for instance as the Chandler & Price type of press, the sheet is held by frisket fingers or gripper secured to the rear edge of theplaten'for holding the sheet during the impression. Prior to the delivery or removal of the printed sheet, said frisket fingers are raised away from the printed sheet, so that it maybe removed by hand or automatic delivery means.

\Vith certain kinds of papers or matter to be printed, it has been found, that after of the sheet curls or buckles upward from the platen making mechanical or pneumatic delivery, as the case maybe, very difiicult,

if not all together impossible. i

The ob 'ect of this invention is therefore to provide a mechanism for insuring that the delivery edge of the paper remains down on the platen in position to be seized by the delivery means.

For. purposes of illustration and a ready understanding of this invention, it is disclosed as applied to a Chandler & Price press equipped with automatic feed and delivery means of the type shown in my U. S. Patents Nos. 1393036v and 1394183 respectively, to which patents I refer for details as to the saidmechanisms,

In speaking of the front and rear edges of the platen or other parts, I use these terms for explanatory purposes only and 'with'respect to the positionof the operator of the press when hand feeding and delivering.

' Referring to the accompanying draw 1ngs i F l is a plan viewofa portion ofthe platen. showingit equipped with my improved sheet holding device;

Fig. 2 is a view thereof looking in the direction'of arrow 2 in Figure 1. i

Fig. 3 is a side view looking in the direction of arrow 3 in Figure 1.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of a platen press illustrating the op eration of my device during the impression.

Fig. 5 is a similar view showing the parts in position just prior to delivery.

Figs. 6 and 7 are detail views.

. Referring first to Figures 4 and 5 the press is identified by the oscillating platen 10, the form member 11 and the frame 12. The paper 13 to be printed rests on a suitable auxiliary frame 14; to which is pivoted a feeding mechanism 15 which is lowered as in Figure 5 to feed or transfer the unprinted detailed description.

After the sheet has been printed, it is removed from the platen by a delivery gripper 16, see Figure 5, and I refer to the aforesaid Patent No. 1394:1823 with respect thereto. I I

Referring now to the other figures of the drawings, there is provided twos heet holding fingers 17 and 18 of very thin suitable material. Each finger has asheet h0lding portion or tongue 19 and a stem p0rti0n20. The sheet holding portion is preferably bent as at 21 to make it resilient or springy in action. The holding fingers are further shaped at an angle to the stem brackets 2e and 25 forming bearings 26 in which is journaled a finger shaft 27. Adjustably mounted on said shaft by means of wing bolts 28 are two finger levers 29,

feeding mechanism and I refer thereto for i 29. T i-e upper ends of said levers are split as at 30, and formed with a dovetailed slot as at 31, 31.

The stems 20 of the sheet holding fingers are pushed into the said slots as shown, and are thereafter firmly clamped in position by means of set screws 32, 32. This clear, therefore, that the fingers 17, 18 are adjustably held in the finger levers and these latter may be adjusted axially on the shaft 27.

The split portions 30, dovetails 31 and set screws 32 constitute clamping means for the fingers l7, l8.

Means are provided for oscillating the linger shaft 2 to raise and lower the sheet holding fingers away from and down on the printed sheet and platen. To this end there is secured to the finger shaft an arm 33 to which is pivoted at 34- an operating lever in the form of a thin rod The other, lower, end of said we passes through a short arm 36 pivoted at 55? to the press frame 12 or other fixed part of the machine.

The arm 36 is preferably made of two parts of fiber 38, 38, held together by a spring 39 so as to frictionally, yet slidably, grip the rod which passes through a bearing cutout l0 in said parts.

To the other end of the finger shaft 27 there is secured a stop arm 41 having a stop adapted to engage the edge 43 of the bracket 24:, see Fig. 3, to limit the movement of the, fin er shaft and fingers in a direction away from the platen. The movement towards the platen is limited by the contact of the levers 29' against the platen itself.

The operation is as follows: When the platen moves from open to closed or impression position'as show-n inFigu-re i, the rod is of course drawn upward through the frieti. ial bearing 4-0 in arm 36 The grip of the latter on the rod 35 presents a resistance to the said movement, suificient to cause the sheet holdin-gfingers to :be held away from the sheet and the platen during nearly all of the closing movement of the platen and during the impression. Dining this part ofthe operation, the stop 36 rocks-forward, and offers very little re-.

sistanee to the passage of the rod '35.

This res stance, however, becomes greater the platen moves upward and the parts are so arranged, that immediately priorto the moment when the (usual. frisket fingers orv platen grippers 50 let go of the sheet,

"the operating lever S5.is

ainst the bracket 24 and the fingers 5 the angular relation between the rod 35 and the arm 36 prevents further rocking movement of the latter, the resistance of the bearing therefore comes into full play and the shaft 27 is rocked to cause the fingers 1718. to close down on the delivery edge ofthe sheet Further upward movement of the platen of course causes the rod 35 to be pushed dOwnthrough the arm 36, because of the greater force applied.

In other words,- just before the frislmt lingers let go of the sheet, the sheet is gripped by the sheet holding fingers and curling or buckling of the sheet is prevented.

And as seen i-nfldigure 5, the sheet holding fingers 11311151111 down on the sheet when the platen is in full open POSltlOih tlillS holding the sheet 1-11 proper fiat posit on to be seized by the delivery gripper 16, this being possible because only'the corners ofthe sheet are held down.

On the closing of the platen, the sheet holding fingers remain down on the sheet long enough to permitthe delivery grippers to elose'thereon. lVhen this happens the friction at '4-0 comes into effect to raise the fingers flirom the sheet to permit the deliv ery grippers to remove the same, and when the fingers are raised, they are at the same time moved forward with respect to the platen because of the position of the pivot at 27 so that said fingers are out of the way of the fresh sheet which at this time is being fed to the platen.

To reez'rpitulate: Because of the swinging or rocking arm 36, the fingers will be down on the sheet during the time required for said arm to swing and this period is utilized to permit the fingers to hold the sheet for delivery purposes and thus aeconnplish the object of the invention. v At all other tin'ies, the sheet holding fingers are aised from the platenbecause of the force with which I gripped by the frictional bearingat 40..

The foregoing is thought to fully explain this invention, which may be used with .equaladvantage for both manual and mechanical or pneumatic delivery as the case may be. The sheet holding fingers prevent the sheet from curling or moving on the platen and this facilitates the removal of the sheet by the operator when delivering by hand. The term sheet herein is to be under stood to cover all inatterto be printed, and

the term delivery edge is intended as mesh ing the edge of the sheet which is seized in removing it from the. platen. lVhile I have shown my invention in its preferred form, it will be"fi1rther understood that I do not wish to limit myself to the precise details disclosed, but that changes and alterations may bemade withinnthe,principle of. the.

.ii'ivention without departing. from the scope of theappended. claims.

I claim i i i 1. The combination With a press including a platen having a cycle of movement from a sheet receiving position to a printing position, of sheet holding resilient fingers pivoted on said platen for momentarily holding the delivery edge of the printed sheet against the platen While the latter is in its 7 sheet receiving position and means for operating said fingers.

2 v The combination With a press including a platen having a oycleof movement from a sheet receiving position to a printing position of means secured to said platen for i'iioinentarily holding the deliveryedge of the printed sheet against the platen While p the latter is in its sheet receiving position and devices for operating said holding means. a

3. The combination With a press including a platen having a cycle of movement from a sheet receiving position to a printing position of means secured to the said platen for hold-- ing down against it the corners of the delivery edge of the printed sheet While the means for operating said fingers to engage a the sheet as aforesaid of said sheet.

5. The combination of a platen, members pivoted thereto and adapted to engage the delivery edge of the printed sheet and mechprior to the delivery anism for operating said fingers into engagement with the sheet after it has been printed and prior to the delivery of said printed sheet.

6. The combination of a platen, members pivoted thereto and adapted to engage the delivery edge of the printed sheet and means pivoted to said press and frictionally connected to the said members.

LEWIS E. MORRISON. 

